Blame game played in wake of Quincy's new flood map

As frustration builds among Quincy homeowners added to FEMA's map, the blame game has ramped up. The city says FEMA's map is flawed; FEMA says the city was responsible for informing its residents sooner; and insurance agencies say some banks have been unfair with homeowners. Impacted residents, however, say there's enough blame to go around.

QUINCY – Two months have passed since the city’s new flood map took effect, and all that’s flowing into coastal neighborhoods is new paperwork with payment deadlines.

This summer, many city homeowners have been receiving notices from their mortgage lenders telling them that they must buy flood insurance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new map took effect June 9, adding roughly 1,400 Quincy properties to the flood plain and raising risk rates for about 2,700 properties already in the plain.

Mortgage holders in the flood plain are required to buy insurance.

As frustration builds among those owners added to the map, the blame game has ramped up. The city says FEMA’s map is flawed; FEMA says the city was responsible for informing its residents sooner; and insurance agencies say some banks have been unfair with homeowners.

Affected residents say there’s enough blame to go around. A group called Quincy Making Waves Coalition, made of up neighbors upset with the map, says FEMA is destroying the values of homes that have never flooded. Also, the group says the insurance agents are profiting by collecting up to 30 percent of insurance premiums.

Gordon Decambra, a resident added to the flood plain this year, said Mayor Thomas Koch should have appealed the city’s map last year. The option to appeal, utilized in Plymouth County by Marshfield, Scituate and Duxbury, would have delayed Quincy’s map by a year.

“He should’ve appealed the maps, and he didn’t,” Decambra said.

Dennis Pinkham, a regional spokesman for FEMA, said his agency made cities and towns aware of the new maps in 2012.

“It’s a very complicated process, and a lot of the burden on this falls on the town to inform the public,” Pinkham said.

Kelly Stanton, a service representative for Flavin & Flavin insurance agency in Quincy, said her firm has written 160 new flood-insurance policies as a result of the new maps. Stanton said some of her new clients were added to the flood plain in 2012 but were never notified by their mortgage lenders.

She said these owners no longer qualify for a preferred-risk plan – costing as little as $460 – and are being asked to make retroactive payments for as much as $2,200 per year.

Stanton said some banks are giving owners only 45 days to buy a plan. The timeline is key because a new state law, which requires lenders to give owners the option of insuring only their outstanding mortgage balance, takes effect in November.

As a result, homeowners who need to act within 45 days will lose hundreds of dollars in savings, she said. “It’s not helping them right now,” Stanton said of the new law, signed by Gov. Deval Patrick in July.

Page 2 of 2 - After the new map went into effect June 9, Mayor Koch filed a request for a map revision that could potentially bring relief to thousands of property owners. But it could take FEMA up to a year to review the challenge.

The city has offered to pay for homeowners’ elevation certificates, which were used in the citywide challenge and can be used in homeowners’ individual appeals to FEMA. Certificates cost about $400 per property.

“The city is really investing a lot of resources into this appeal,” Ward 1 City Councilor Margaret Laforest said.

Pamela Brennan, a Beachwood Knoll resident added to the flood plain this year, said residents should expect FEMA to add more homes to the plain in 2017, if not sooner. FEMA’s Norfolk County maps are up for review in 2017, though they can redraw them at anytime in places prone to flooding.

“No one can stop FEMA,” Brennan said. “They can do whatever they want.”